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Last one for now (I'll have to do somthing else good now )

This one is from September 2007 and happened to accidently hit rather a nice weather window. A pleasing by product of my recent habit of buying second hand guide books in an Oxfam.

Its mentioned in a chapter by Showell Styles as his favourite walk. Well a fuller version. As he says you really just need to look at the map to see quite how good an idea this is: Prestatyn to Barmouth via: the Clywdian hills, Berwyns, Hirnants, Arans, Dovey hills and Cadair to finish off.

What is so glorious about the route is how well these all line up in geographic terms. It splits very naturally into a set of sensible day walks where you can hit the tops early and stay up all the way along each of the ridges. Very little 'fill in' walking in between and some glorious, quiet scenery.

Actually not sure how you'd beat it for a week south of the border - a circuit in the Lakes/Snowdonia proper would get somewhat repetitive compared to this. I'd certainly reccomend it as long as happy being fractionally adventerous. 

My pictures aren't as good as they might have been (into the sun too often I think) but there are plenty of good sources for these hills - the VG backpacking site has tons

Anyway on to the report.

Day1: Llangollen to Llangynog

For some reason I decided to cut it a bit short by starting from Llangollen. That left my time scale to get in the main Berwyn a touch tight, and too much so once I got Crewe and Chester mixed up when travelling by train!

Anyway I still got in a nice walk round the edges of the Berwyns, with a lovely end. Looking mournfully at the tops:

The pay back came when I got in Pistyll Rheadr's valley at a time when I had it to myself in some soft evening light. Utterly lovely. Not that the photo is so special:

Part of that was the light being cut out rather by the very steep sides to the valley. Like this:

Well I had to tear myself away and head up over to Llanynog. The evening light and general sense of peace on the hillside on the way was also lovely.

Day2: Llangynog to Bala

First port of call is to get out to the head of blean y cwm. As with PR's valley the sides of this are really amazingly steep sided:

This bit struck me as amazingly un English, with the trees covering such a steep slope.

Still this isn't the prize. Thats the waterfall at the head of the valley. You can see it from a huge distance away and it really is very impressive. (much better photos of this on the VG site.).

Finally you climb out of the valley a fair way to the right side of this fall. The first impression might be that you've accidentally stumbled into the peak district

But find a way up to Cyrniau Nod through the heather (I found this easy, reports have it feersum) and it makes it very clear that you're not

That view is basically there for the rest of the day to drag you onwards. The going isn't half as bad as it might be as there's a grouse shooting track you can take (very obvious on arial photos as I remember) which takes you along to Cwm Hirnant from where I popped up Foel Y Gefir before following the minor road along into Bala.

(this diversion to/from Bala is the only place you get notably diverted to find accomodation without a tent. Its not all that far over all though.).

Day3: Bala to Dinas Mawddy

Easy idea this. Along the lake, then up and along the Aran ridge. I was actually going to go all the way along it onto Foel Benddin. That'd have made for a gently exciting decent right at the end, but I think a managable one.

As it was the ridge looked like this  on the way up:

and then rather whiter on top. Some interesting rocks through the gloom but well you'll see vastly more interesting photos elsewhere It still hadn't lifted by the time I reached the ascent of Glasgym so I took the path down.

Of course this promptly happened:

The cliffs in Cwm Cywarch were a hugely impressive consolation prize, although none of my photos came out very well. They are pictures elsewhere. 

Day4: Dinas Mawddy to Dolgellau

A straight up Dovey hills traverse this. The paths on the ground were rather clearer than you might expect from the map, and the hills/views very impressive. This is the rather impressive hanging vally fall/cliffs on Maesglasau.

Still, with the Arans rather duller from this side, the main pull is the views of Cadair. Its interestingly different from this angle, and especially from MynddfronFraith, one of the heathery bits on the other side of the valley.

Day5: Dolgellau to Barmouth.

Very easy in principle this day too - up by Gau Graig then along the whole Cadair ridge before dropping off down to Barmouth. I didn't do this one 'right' either - I got spooked by some early cloud on top of Cadair. So I stayed at about 600m and contoured round. 

The cloud then lifted of course Never mind as the views to the N were still there (and very impressive), and the lost view to the S was rather compensated by things like this:

Photo very much into the sun but the idea is clear

The other great thing you get this way is getting underneath Cyfrwy without any need to tangle with the (truly horrible) foxes path screes.

Then along and up the pony path before heading right. Some nice views back of course.

Unfortunately for poor, unjustly lonely  Llyn Cyri I got a tiny bit worried about my train and came off the hillside before it. Still here it is. Its a classic glacial lake, although I guess you can see how it gets a bit overshadowed

Then 'just' along the estuary and over the bridge to Barmouth. The views from on the bridge are really terrific.

And then to the one main regret - having to go back To be fair its not quite so easy to push much further N without a tent in tow. One day perhaps. Of course with a tent you could dream up endless versions of this....

I'd tried to book Barmouth but they were having a literary festival or something.

Hmmm, lovely

I'm fortunate enough to live within an hour's drive of every one of the ranges here, and we're getting out to them more and more - far less crowded than 'mainstream' Snowdonia and no less impressive, just a little different from Pen-y-Pass and Ogwen. And all excellent wild-camping country.

looks good -Martin

my inlaws have just moved to near Oswestry - not too far from those hills

do you have a link to an online route orcan you tell me which S S book it was?

my (hooky) memorymap has just 'died' so I can't see the maps at the moment

Mole, I've just checked my bookshelf and it's described in Chapter 2: The Bay-to-Bay Walk, in Backpacking in Wales (by Showell Styles obviously), published 1977 by Robert Hale Ltd, ISBN 0 7091 5958 7.

I happened to pick up a copy second-hand 2 or 3 years ago because I remembered borrowing a copy from the library in my very early walking days and reading a trip of his where he took  2 weeks to do the Welsh 3000's, moving on one summit per day and camping out on top of each.

cheers Matt

just checked amazon - £28 min for a copy! - must be good

I can't remember where I got mine from, Mole, definitely somewhere online but not Amazon, but it was a lot less than £28! iirc it was less than £10.

Bizarrely I see that the same UK sellers will offer it to the US for a mere $6 on Amazon.com. Do you know anyone in the Sates who could ship it back for you?!!

It'd no doubt be an interesting read but if its tricky to get hold of I wouldn't worry so much - its not a fixed thing, the general line is very clear on a map - the ridges really do line up quite impressively - and there are tons of options to vary to taste.

(I was just going off the hills.).

Something like the recent Cicerone hillwalking in wales volumes 1/2 (Hermon) would be very useful - they cover all the midly obscure hills involved very nicely. (and some that aren't )

An excellent concept, it makes you want to set off right away.

The Cyrniau Nod area is a devilish one, the terrain is largely a matter of luck at any given time since the mown heather tracks change constantly, on one trip our line up there was one of the nastiest we've ever encountered.

At first I thought of crossing from the Arans to the Dyfis via Foel Benddin for our Arans/Dyfis/Cadair traverse, which is clear if you want to pass through Dinas Mawddwy, but the natural crossing with least loss of height is via Pen y Brynfforchog.

 I've heard about the eroded Foxes Path but never tried it - I vaguely remember reading that the route was being actively discouraged.

That does seem like a nice way round to do it

Foxes path certainly should be discouraged! Here's what the recent Cicerone hillwalking in wales has to say: 'long, excruciatingly steep and treacherously unstable, eroded so badly in parts that they border on dangerous'.

I hate the things in principle but must be a case for some footpath repairs there - with it being marked on the OS maps as a major path and going to Llyn Gadair its always going to see some use. It could hardly more of a scar on the mountain than it already  is!